Nebraska Public School Advantage News

By Tyler Dahlgren NCSA Communications Specialist School culture gone wrong is never an easy fix. It’s hard to cultivate a uniform, school-wide front of positivity, mostly because one wouldn’t know where in the wide, wide world of education to start. Four years ago, Brad Jacobsen stared at a list of names. The sheet of paper contained 15-20 middle-schoolers and 20-30 high school students in...Read More

By Tyler Dahlgren NCSA Communications Specialist There’s a person behind the teacher, and there’s a person behind the student. Beyond the syllabus, books, numbers and homework assignments you’ll find hobbies, interests and skills that don’t always have a place, or a time, in the classroom. For two days, students at Cozad High School venture past curriculum into a world of fantasy baseball drafts...Read More

By Tyler Dahlgren NCSA Communications Specialist Rosie is a star at Cross County High School. She’s the subject of many hallway conversations, and the camera follows her every move. Literally. Her ‘round the clock video stream draws a healthy audience. She’s a sensation in the Cross County community, from Stromsburg to Benedict. Rosie is the coolest cow in school. *** A rural school 15 miles...Read More

By Tyler Dahlgren NCSA Communications Specialist “Think about all of the educators you’ve had in your life,” Dr. Beth Johnsen says during every interview, a lead into the most significant question she will ask each prospective teacher. “Are some teachers better than others?” It's not a trick question. Johnsen is looking for one answer. “Yes, so when they say that right away, that’s what I want to...Read More

By Tyler Dahlgren NCSA Communications Specialist The daughter of educators, Katie Mathews grew up playing school with her best friends, helping her mom in the classroom and attending high school activities with her father. When the time came to choose a profession, Mathews did her due diligence. “Although I explored other career options, I knew when I began my coursework in elementary education...Read More

By Tyler Dahlgren NCSA Communications Specialist Three lawyers working in the education section of a large firm had an idea. No, this isn’t the set-up for a bad attorney joke, but rather the beginning of Lincoln-based KSB School Law, a hip and unorthodox firm that fights its battles for the good of public education. “We had always dreamed of forming a school-specific firm,” said Karen Haase, an...Read More

By Tyler Dahlgren NCSA Communications Specialist It was once merely a walkway in the Fremont Public Schools Administration Building, a large area of space used simply to get from one side of the big brick structure to the other. That was before Mary Robinson attended a convention for the visually impaired, boarded a plane and returned to Nebraska with an idea that, if she could get it to come to...Read More

By Tyler Dahlgren NCSA Communications Specialist One by one, award-winning principals stepped on the podium at the Nebraska State Principal Conference in Kearney earlier this month. Each one had a speech planned out, as a ballroom full of proud peers looked on. Most became emotional in thanking their families, their administrations, and their peers. I was right in front of the stage, snapping...Read More

By Tyler Dahlgren NCSA Communications Specialist Behind every single student at Huntington Elementary stands someone who cares. Caring comes easy this time of the year, as cheerful jingles ring through grocery store speakers and car radios. Spirits lift almost involuntarily in joyful anticipation of the merriest time of the year. For some, however, the holiday season beckons worry. Worry about...Read More

By Tyler Dahlgren NCSA Communication Specialist The click-clack of hooves on the tile floor of Laurel-Concord-Coleridge’s library should have, in theory anyways, been a foreign sound. There should have been looks of confusion and noses scrunched up in puzzlement, because this certainly wasn’t something you see on an average school day. And yet as Pippin, a four-year-old Shetland pony, made his...Read More